Writing Contest: The Results Show

Thank you to all of you who participated in my first writing contest. Each of you taught us (or reminded us about) something special about motherhood. There were so many wonderful essays submitted that I was glad that it was my marvelous mother-in-law's responsibility to choose the best, rather than mine! She spent a great deal of time poring over them and in the end chose a first, second, and third place winner. And they are simply wonderful.

Congratulations to Lei from My Many Colored Days, whose essay, "A-ha!" took first place. Her essay, if you haven't read it yet, was all about becoming the perfect mother through Christ, but letting go of the notion of being "the perfect mother." Myrna's (MIL/judge) comment on it was:

"This is a lesson that will stand you in good stead the rest of your life. We are all dependent on His grace and as women striving for perfection, we often get lost in the independence we think we have."

Lei has a beautiful and inspiring blog and I recommend that you meander over there and take a look. She has lots to say on the issues that affect mothers today.


Second place goes to Lizzy at My Ice Cream Diary for "Ah-ha!", which she amazingly wrote this when her newest baby, Cheeks, was less than one week old. Her epiphany had to do with appreciating her mother after all the years of criticizing her ways. It was funny, warm, and oh, so familiar. Here are Myrna's comments:

"I'm sorry. I have a little bias here as I am on now on the wise and wonderful side (even when I'm neither wise nor wonderful). But this is a time honored epiphany of motherhood. It's a safe bet that this time one generation ago your mother was calling your grandma and saying, 'She hates me!'"

Third place goes to Lucy at An Ordinary Mom, with "The Duck Pond." She writes about learning to live in the moment and not always rushing on to the next thing. The judge said:

"This speaks to me even as a woman who is no longer focused on the busy-ness of motherhood anymore. I like the duck pond and I suspect there is another lesson in the distractions that made the rest of the walk peaceful. Hmmmm."

If you haven't already, go on over to their blogs and read them for yourself. You'll feel inspired, you'll enjoy a good laugh, and you may just decide to set a new goal for your mothering self.

To all who participated, please please send me an email with your postal address so that I can mail out these cookbooks. (Truth be told, I have yet to burn them for you--but I've only gotten two emails with addresses so far.) I will get them out to you very soon.